Gov. Jerry Brown has good reason to look carefully at much of the legislation that passed in the final weeks of the session, but here are three he can quickly sign into law and feel good about it: the ban on lead bullets, which will help condors and, really, all living things; stronger requirements for community colleges and state universities to make credits transferable; and the rule, common in nearly half the states, that motorists keep three feet away from bicyclists.

We hear the fate of these bills is in question, but it shouldn’t be. Here’s why.

Lead bullets

AB 711 has been watered down some since we urged its passage in April, but it still is good legislation requiring that non-lead ammunition be used to shoot wildlife in California. The Assembly and Senate passed it, standing up to the National Rifle Association. Now it’s Brown’s turn.

Hope of saving the endangered California condor inspired the bill, but more than 130 wildlife species, including the also-endangered golden eagle, are vulnerable to painful death from lead poisoning from bullets left in the environment. This is why the California Department of Fish and Wildlife supports the ban. But so does the California Medical Association: There is no safe level of lead exposure in humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Opponents claim there are not sufficient effective and affordable alternatives to lead ammunition, but that’s not true. There are plenty of options, and if more are needed, the compromise delaying implementation until 2019 allows time to develop them. Eventually, California will not be the only market to decide that random poisoning of wildlife, endangered or not, need not be a side effect of legitimate hunting.

Brown should sign this legislation, not just to help save the condors but to reduce the level of one more poison in California’s environment.

College credits

SB 440 is the follow-up to a 2010 bill requiring community colleges to create degree programs designed to transfer to CSU and mandating that CSU accept those students and their credits. In 2012 the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that not enough colleges were doing this. It recommended additional legislation to ensure the goals of the original bill are met.

This bill sets stricter requirements for community colleges and CSUs to develop transfer degrees, and it requires the CSUs to begin redirecting students denied admission at one campus to another, the same method the University of California uses.

All of this should help California improve its dismal transfer rates, save students time and money, and allow more people to earn a college degree — the gateway to the middle class.

Both houses of the Legislature passed the bill unanimously. The governor should join them in supporting it.

Bicycle clearance

AB 1371 requires motorists to allow three feet of clearance when passing bikes. Twenty-two states have at least this protection, but Brown has twice vetoed similar legislation, nitpicking specifics. This year, Assemblyman Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, tried to address his concerns.

Current law requires motorists to pass at a “safe” distance, whatever that is. Most cyclists have stories of a car or big truck passing inches away. (Hey, if they didn’t hit them, it was safe, right?) Three feet is enough room for a cyclist to maneuver around a hazard in the road without winding up on the hood of the passing car. Most times, a car can pass without slowing to a crawl.

If we want more people to get out of their cars and help the air and the climate, cycling needs to be safer. The three-foot rule is something California should have been first on, not 23rd.